Lukman backs convocation of NEC meeting, doubts sincerity of some party leaders
The Director General, Progressive Governors Forum, Dr.Salihu Lukman has backed the call for an emergency meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
This is as he doubted the sincerity of some leaders of the party in getting the party crisis resolved.
He said this in a personal statement titled : APC at Crossroad – Are there going to be Leaders or Blacklegs? On Wednesday, Lukman challenged the leadership of the APC to take decisive steps to tame the dragging crisis by convening a National Executive Council (NEC) meeting.
He called for some drastic steps to restore some order and sanity in APC stressing that it is either the confusion is allowed to continue and eventual end with the demise of the party, or the leaders find a way to save the party.
Insisting that convocation of NEC meeting is the immediate way out of the present crisis, Lukman said “with the NEC meeting scheduled to hold in less than 48 hours, if it is reflective of rebellion, both the Newspaper, the television station owned by the leader and all his support base may be activated to attempt to block the NEC meeting, including boycotting the NEC.
“How could such a strategy help the leader? Without any debate, this is one leader that certainly enjoys high measure of respect across the party and is perhaps a leading contender to succeed President Buhari.
‘If such a leader works for or tolerated his media companies and supporters to inadvertently work for the demise of the party, how does that serve him? Could it be that he has decided to work against any possibility of succeeding President Buhari?
“Be that as it may, how will leaders or blacklegs relate with the NEC and the decisions it will take? Will they seek to take advantage of the NEC to reset the process of party building back to the point whereby it becomes possible for meetings of party organs to hold and through those meetings seek to resolve all our internal problems, including reconciling all our leaders and repositioning it for undisputed electoral victories?
“The days ahead will confirm whether we have party leaders or blacklegs. All committed party members and leaders should rally behind President Buhari in support of the scheduled NEC to hold so that we are able to reset the APC back to its 2013 orientation of inclusive and participatory politics.
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” To achieve that, the public debate should be about proposals to ensure that the NEC succeeds rather than attempting to throw up legal blockades!”
He, however, doubted the intent of some of the leaders to agree with the NEC meeting.
The Director General said “these are critical questions now that with the approval of President Buhari, a meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC) has been called. Would these so-called leaders acting as blacklegs seek to undermine the moral authority of the President as the leader of the party?
“Already, a Newspaper owned by one of the leaders of the party has dismissed a meeting held by the President with the Governors of the party as ‘Anti-Oshiomhole governors submit positions to Buhari’. Is this headline a reflection of the position of the leader?
‘Is the message underlining this headline going to serve as the basis of opposition against the initiative by the President to ensure that a NEC meeting holds?
With the way the President’s name is presented using just his first name, isn’t that already indicative of some measure of rebellion?”
Sounding dejected by the current crisis, he said “it is such a mess that almost every passing day, we just keep descending lower and lower.
Not only do members get more and more frustrated, but also that Nigerians become more and more disappointed and some of our leaders with a mandate to govern the country are daily being distracted.
Instead of facing the business of government and strengthening the capacity of APC governments at federal and state levels to deliver on their campaign promises, it is a case of leadership conflicts all over the place.
“Rather than have party leadership making efforts to resolve these conflicts, they become the major disputants and litigants.
If the dispute turns out to be between these party leaders and elected functionaries of government, once the circle of election comes, these functionaries should be ready to be thrown out no matter their records in government.
“Professors and all manner of clownish supporters will be recruited to defend and present actions of these party leaders as decisions of party structures and therefore reflective of the supremacy of the party.
The Director General, however, said President Buhari should be left out of the leadership blame.
He said “President Buhari’s approach to party management has been cited by many political analysts as weakness.
Perhaps in expectation of possibly replicating the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) tight-fist handling of party affairs as was the case under former President Obasanjo, those who qualifies President Buhari’s approach as weakness pay lip service to question of commitment to development of political parties as an important pillar of any democracy.
“Rather than have a party that is independent and seek to direct the affairs of governments produced by the party in line with provisions of the party’s manifesto, we prefer to have a mediocre party leadership whose business hardly goes beyond photo opportunities with the President and other elected functionaries.
“To such an extent, the belief is that the President will always then clean the mess of the party leaders, which then means that the President will run government and then run the party”.
